Reconnecting

STOCKTON - No school. No job. Often, no home. What follows can be really scary: no hope.

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By Kevin Parrish

recordnet.com

By Kevin Parrish

Posted Dec. 10, 2012 at 12:01 AM

By Kevin Parrish

Posted Dec. 10, 2012 at 12:01 AM

Stories of disconnection and hope

Ryan Barbour, 18, Stockton• Living at Safehouse Emergency Shelter"I've got a lot of hope. I know I'm going to make it. I want to go to college and become a pharmacy technician ...

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Stories of disconnection and hope

Ryan Barbour, 18, Stockton

• Living at Safehouse Emergency Shelter

"I've got a lot of hope. I know I'm going to make it. I want to go to college and become a pharmacy technician or maybe go into music production."

Barbour, who has spent time at juvenile hall, left home because of family members' drug addictions.

Chantenique Anderson, 21, Stockton

• Living in her own downtown apartment

"My mom is in jail. My dad is dead. I wasn't taught how to take care of myself. I've had some bad relationships. But I've got two jobs, I've saved some money, paid my deposit and got my keys today to my own place."

Anderson, who has two toddlers, used to live on the street or in cars. She hopes to break the cycle of dysfunction with her children.

Angel Hernandez, 17, and Rebecca Sanchez, 18, Stockton

• Both are living with Angel's mother, 56-year-old Sylvia Salas, and with their 4-month-old baby, Xavier

"I want to make something of my life," Rebecca said. Angel echoes, "I have to get an education. I have to do something with my life — and not be a bum."

Rebecca missed a year of school during her pregnancy; Angel missed four months to be with her. Both are on a fast track to catch up, using the alternative program at Stockton High School.

Jorjina Rosas, 16, Stockton

• Living at home

"When I left Edison, I didn't care about trying in school. I just wanted to get away. Now my goal is to graduate."

Rosas was out of school for two years, traveling back and forth to Mexico. She's motivated now to become a nurse in the U.S. Air Force.

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STOCKTON - No school. No job. Often, no home. What follows can be really scary: no hope.

Her job, along with two others working with the Women's Center Youth and Family Services agency, is to scoop up disconnected young people and help them restart their lives.

"No one is championing the lost youth," said Jennifer Jones, the agency's program manager. "They want to achieve their dreams, too. They need to hear that they can do it.

"The biggest thing they need is hope."

Serna-Halliday finds those floating on their own in some of the strangest places: on rooftops, in doorways, behind Dumpsters, inside abandoned homes.

Her agency in downtown Stockton takes care of about 250 aimless young people a year, but that number is only part of the story. Another 400 show up - and then disappear again - at their drop-in center on North California Street. During a recent community outreach, Serna-Halliday estimates contact with 1,000 or so at-risk youths across San Joaquin County.

She and Jones are convinced that there are hundreds more that they've been unable to find.

More than 850,000 teenagers and young adults have been identified statewide as neither working nor in school, according to a new study from the Annie E. Casey Foundation and Oakland-based Children Now.

They've been labeled "disconnected youth" by the report's authors.

The young people aren't necessarily homeless, but one in five of the state's young people fall into the no job-no school category. The number has increased by 35 percent since 2000. Employment among young people is at its lowest level since the 1950s.

Maryann Santella has been a Stockton educator for 20 years. She, too, is on the front lines, trying to help disconnected young people find their way.

She is principal of Stockton High School, an alternative campus that is teeming with stories of lost teenagers who've been found.

"We get all kinds of kids and for a lot of different reasons," Santella said. "They are connected here. They know they have adults who will help them. We can't just educate them and throw them out there. We prepare them. We know we're a safe place for them."

Stockton-area interventionists agree on the reasons why young people are disengaged:

» Parents incapable of caring for them - either because of substance abuse, mental health problems or family finances. "Some parents actually choose to care for younger children and kick out their teenagers because they can't afford them," Jones said. Domestic violence is often a subplot.

» Parents who choose an adult relationship or partner at the expense of their children.

» All the influences of their network or community. "Essentially it's hanging out with the wrong kids," said Dee Alimbini, Stockton Unified's administrator of child welfare and attendance. "And if those friends don't go to school, it can spiral out of control." Gang pressures compound the problems.

» Aged-out foster children. "Some of them say, 'Hey, I'm 18,' and that's exciting," said Serna-Halliday, who at 54 has lost none of her enthusiasm for trying to rescue troubled young people.

» Sexual orientation. "This is huge," Jones said. "This is a problem for about half of the kids we see - lots of families have problems with this. Stockton and the county are not gay-friendly."

» The Internet and its influences. The 36-year-old Jones hates Facebook and social media. "Kids are growing up faster and ugly things are happening online - cyberbullying and sexting, One wrong picture, and it's viral for the rest of your life."

The Casey Foundation-Children Now report describes a generation that is less likely to achieve financial stability, especially in minority communities, and more likely to repeat patterns of single-parenthood and educational underachievement.

The report calls for multiple, flexible pathways to success for disconnected young people.

At Youth and Family Services, outreach workers make it a priority to listen, understand and then redirect. "A job is the key to success, to hope and to connections," Serna-Halliday said. "These kids need to know that someone cares about them."

At Stockton Unified, the 57-year-old Alimbini added, "Every kid needs an advocate, someone they trust. They need to make connections."